The Evolution of Social Media on the Internet

Years ago, when I first heard about MySpace, which was all the rage at the time, I was intrigued. I created an account, uploaded some photos, wrote one line on what I was doing - complete with an appropriate smiley - and then waited. I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe I thought there would be an immediate response. Maybe I expected some sort of interaction with the MySpace community. But I was disappointed.

In the few months that my account was active, I received approximately 10 emails. Nine of them were spam and the tenth was some guy hitting on me, even though I was clearly married with children and not at all interested in what he was suggesting in his message. When I deleted my account, I had only five friends - all family members who were as disinterested in the website as I was.

Less than a year ago, my brother sent me an invitation to join Facebook. I had heard of it, but assumed it was just another MySpace. I joined anyway. It didn't take long to get me hooked, and I began convincing others to join as well. My friend list has grown to include my entire immediate family, all of my friends, many of my neighbors, friends from high school, and distant relatives that I hadn't talked to in years. Even my daughters have their own accounts to keep in touch with their cousins.

When my eight-year-old daughter, Annie, was life-flighted to Pittsburgh Children's Hospital after a spontaneous brain bleed, I passed along updates through a Facebook group. Over 200 people joined the group to find out about Annie's procedures and progress and to send their love and prayers to our family.

But Facebook is nothing compared to Twitter.

Many people just don't get it. Several of my Facebook friends have an account on Twitter, but don't use it. One person actually became confrontational. "RT @John bit.ly/rnd2398/ RT@Joe @blah #Iran #jonasbros having cereal for breakfast," he mocked after my praise for the site.

But Twitter isn't like Facebook. Or MySpace. Or even LinkedIn. One hundred and forty characters to say what's on your mind. One hundred forty characters to provide interesting, entertaining content. Yeah, there's spam on Twitter, but it's no more intrusive than requests to join the Mafia, become a Farmville neighbor, or chug an alcoholic beverage. Of course, you can always block spammers.

What sets Twitter apart from other social media outlets is the opportunity for immediate response, which was what I was craving when I signed up for MySpace. As you build your followers, you can expect to receive instant replies and responses to what you post. The Twitter community interacts in ways that are lacking with other social media sites.

I joined Twitter in early July, approximately one hundred days ago, and have almost one thousand followers. I've built friendships with other writers, with homeschool families, with people that make me laugh. When they put up links, I click on them. I know that if something appeals to my friends, I most likely will enjoy it, as well, since we share the same interests. And my friends click on and comment on things that I post. In fact, I learned about Associated Content from a writer friend on Twitter.

I'm still relatively new to AC and only have five published articles. However, even with a minimal amount of content, I am still seeing positive results from promoting my Associated Content articles on Twitter. For each day that I posted links on Twitter to one of my articles, I received between seven and thirty-two views. For the two days I did not post any AC links on Twitter, I received only one view. However, averaging fifteen views per day for the remaining sixteen days is not too shabby for one hundred and forty characters. Additionally, promoting my AC content on Twitter has helped me develop new friendships both on Twitter and on Associated Content.

But that's only a tiny slice of how well Twitter works for promoting your writing. As I've mentioned, I'm still fairly new to AC. I used to post all of my articles on my personal website. I averaged about ten visits a day. I did not advertise, other than posting new articles to Facebook. I optimized the pages and listed appropriate keywords, hoping to be found through the search engines.

On July 7^th, I had seventeen visits to my website, the highest for the month. On July 8^th, the day that I joined and began marketing my articles on Twitter, I had 34 visitors. The following day, it was up to 64 people.

When I write a short description and link to my articles, I see an instant spike in page views, whether it is on Associated Content, my personal web site, or even my business site. I've gone from 171 unique visitors going to my site 233 times in a pre-Twitter month to 540 individuals visiting my site a whopping 1363 times after joining Twitter. The potential as a marketing tool is evident in those numbers.

So, while you may run across some strange hashtags (or keywords) and nonsensical RTs (or "retweets," the reposting of someone else's content), you may also meet some friendly people who provide you not only with interesting content, but also with a ready-made and willing audience for your writing.